Orange to impose overseas data cap to beat bill shock

Orange wants to make roaming less of an ordeal, today saying it will bundle voice, texts and data into a single, pay-as-you-go style package to make it easier to charge for using phones overseas.

The new packages will allow punters to buy airtime, SMS allowances and volumes of date in bulk before travelling. Orange said the bundles are aimed at "occasional roamers".

So, a package bundling ten minutes of voice calls, ten text messages and 10MB of data could set you back up €5 (£4.20), Orange said.

Orange already sells this kind of bundle in Spain, Belgium and Romania, but promised to bring them to the UK in June.

The cellco will launch an Android app to help users track their network usage while overseas.

It will also introduce a data usage cap for travel outside of the EU, where a mandatory cap is already in place, imposed by European telecoms regulators to prevent Europeans suffering 'bill shock' - excessive charges incurred by using smartphones and 3G dongles overseas.

The wider cap is set to cut data off when more than €130 (£110) has been spent on data, though users will be warned of the impending break when they've spent €100 (£85). ®